The bankruptcy of FTI (the owner of Meeting Point Hotels and Labranda Hotels) has left the tourist market open for TUI, which has a market share of around 62% in the south of Gran Canaria, to gain more business. And what have the venture capital funds done in the hotel sector? Raise wholesale prices for TUI. What has TUI done? Deseasonalise Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Cape Verde and even announce an increase in sales in the Caribbean for other markets, since until now it had been doing so for Germans and British. This means more sales to tourists from Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, the Nordic market or Poland.
FTI was the third largest German tour operator after TUI and DER Touristik and declared bankruptcy at the beginning of June and shortly afterwards cancelled all the trips that had already been booked. TUI has taken over a large part of the package holiday purchases protected against the organiser's insolvency through the German Travel Insurance Fund. If TUI previously had power over the Canary Islands market, the reaction to a price increase for a historic tourist provider in the south of Gran Canaria has generated unrest at the company's headquarters in Hanover, especially since everything points to Germany falling into recession in 2024 after its economy having stagnated for more than two years and German GDP is expected to contract by 0,1% this year.
Already during a visit to Ankara and Istanbul, TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel announced at the end of September that he will expand the group's exposure in Turkey and market the country in more source markets throughout the year. TUI will increase cooperation with its Turkish hotel partners in order to increase the number of TUI guests in Turkey. The collapse of FTI, a major player in the Gran Canaria business, fits in with TUI's announced strategy to target more guests in the low- to mid-price segment in the future.
The group will also expand the portfolio of its own hotel brands in Turkey. Today there are 33 TUI hotels and resorts in Turkey with around 25.000 beds owned. The two most recent additions this year are the TUI Blue Angora Beach and the TUI Magic Life Beldibi. In addition, TUI will extend the season into autumn and winter, as promised in Germany and Great Britain, where Turkey has so far been offered as a year-round holiday destination, but will be added to other source markets for the winter season.
This is good news for Turkish hoteliers. Because while in summer many beds fill up automatically - despite the fact that prices have recently risen considerably - in winter occupancy and rates are significantly lower. In Turkey, unlike in Greece and southern Gran Canaria, many hotel funds have long been dependent on year-round operations.
TUI has significantly expanded its capacities, particularly in the Canary Islands with short-term bookings and improved average prices for the 2025 summer programme for the tour operator business across the group. At 97 percent, almost the entire planned programme at TUI has already been sold. Bookings for the winter programme also remain promising. Thanks to the increased demand for package holidays, TUI is currently recording a 7 percent increase in bookings. Average prices were higher in all source markets and increased by five percent overall, which is due, among other things, to the improved sales mix of more expensive package holidays. In Germany, the booking level is 11 percent higher than in the previous year and 30 percent of the capacity has been sold. In the Canary Islands, prices in the hotel industry are 10 percent higher than in the previous year.
